POLIÇA and s t a r g a z e

Released on August 13, 2018

Minnesota synth-pop group POLIÇA and Berlin-based orchestra s t a r g a z e share a taste of their wildly innovative collaboration, Music for the Long Emergency, with us in this Buzzsession, directed by Emmett Kerr-Perkinson. Filmed at Douglass Recording in Gowanus, Brooklyn, this session strips down a project born of political anxiety to its tender essence. Vocalist Channy Leaneagh’s soft timbre and s t a r g a z e's strings give “Agree” and “How Is This Happening,” songs both written in the immediate wake of the 2016 election, a new sense of resolution in contrast to the panic they evoke on the record.

These recordings set a tone of solemn resistence fitting for an America two years into what POLIÇA would call “The Long Emergency.” Without the urgent undertones of the songs’ full orchestrations, listeners are left to feel vulnerability in Leaneagh’s voice and, some might say, defeat. Regardless of one’s political leanings, it is hard not to appreciate the harmonic beauty of Leaneagh’s vocals and the string section from s t a r g a z e. Kerr-Perkinson’s decision to shoot on VHS calls back to a time less emergent, not only heightening the irony of their lyrics, but also reminding the listener of a time when he or she might have been blissfully ignorant of politics and the anxiety the conjure.